"New Delta CEO nixes 2nd Atlanta airport idea"

Friday, August 24, 2007

New Delta CEO nixes 2nd airport idea
By Jim Tharpe
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution

 
Minneapolis -- The incoming Delta Air Lines chief executive has some advice
for Atlanta about a second commercial airport: Don't do it.

Richard Anderson, who takes Delta's controls on Sept. 1, said building a
second airport to take the pressure off Hartsfield-Jackson International
could inconvenience the primary customer base of connecting passengers and
create a logistical nightmare. He said connecting passengers are the main
reason Atlanta has so many flights, and that it would be impractical to
shuttle them between airports.

"It's difficult enough for passengers to get from concourse A to concourse
C, let alone from one airport to another to change flights," Anderson said
during an interview with The Atlanta Journal Constitution at his Linden
Hills home.

He invited a reporter to his house after hearing the reporter was in
Minneapolis to talk to people who knew him from his days as CEO at Northwest
Airlines. Anderson, 52, sat with his wife, Susan, in their family room for a
casual evening conversation.

The couple, which has two children in college, is preparing to move to
Atlanta and wanted to know about various areas and how to avoid the worst
traffic.

Anderson has been a longtime Minneapolis resident, spending 14 years at
Northwest and then moving to Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Group as an
executive vice president in 2004. He was recruited for Delta's new board
when it emerged from bankruptcy in April, and this week that board named him
as Delta's new CEO.

On the airport issue, Anderson pointed out that most of the 85 million
passengers a year who use Hartsfield-Jackson are connecting passengers --
they are simply changing planes. About 25 to 30 percent of
Hartsfield-Jackson fliers begin or end their flights in Atlanta.

"The reason Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world is because it is the
best connecting airport in the word," Anderson said.

The federal government earlier this year gave Atlanta officials a $1 million
grant to begin studying ways to improve air capacity at Hartsfield-Jackson.
Some federal officials have strongly hinted the metro region should look at
a second commercial airport about two decades down the road. The idea had
also come up in the 1980s, but to no result.

The idea has been strongly dismissed by current Delta officials. The airline
controls about 80 percent of the business at Hartsfield-Jackson, and some
airline analysts say Delta does not want the added competition that would
come with a second airport.

Anderson said he had to deal with the second-airport issue in Minneapolis,
which eventually opted to keep and enlarge its old airport.

"I've been through this debate here," he said. "They talked about it 15 or
20 years."

Anderson reiterated that he is not going to Delta with an eye toward
engineering a merger, despite speculation sparked by his time at Northwest,
widely thought to be a potential partner for Delta.

"In terms of a specific plan, there is no specific plan. We have to make
Delta work as a standalone business and not get distracted by other things,"
Anderson said.

Anderson also said he is eager to pursue Delta's bid for new Atlanta-China
routes as part of a broader international expansion.

"That's where the opportunity lies," he said.

"It's really sad that Northwest and United are objecting (to Delta's China
bid)," he said. "They just don't want additional competition."

The U.S. Department of Transportation is considering Delta's application for
China route rights and could rule later this year.

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